TALLADEGA, Ala.—NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers liked the way their 2013 cars looked during their test Wednesday at Talladega Superspeedway.

How did they drive? Well … that depends on the driver’s perspective.

The cars were more unstable in two-car tandems, which NASCAR certainly wouldn’t mind. The whole purpose of the test Wednesday was to work on a cooling system that would limit drivers’ ability to race in that one-car–pushing-another style.

Seven teams participated in the test for the new bodies, which are designed to have more manufacturer identity.

The front bumpers are different on all makes. The Chevrolet SS comes to a point more at its front, which made it the most unstable when pushing. The Toyota Camry and Ford Fusion bumpers were more curved on the sides, creating more potential to turn the driver being pushed because of less surface area from front bumper of the car doing the pushing to the rear bumper of the car being pushed.

The other issue that could make it more dicey is the cars in a more traditional single-line draft could stick with drivers in a two-car tandem.

“This is going to create much more excitement—good for some, bad for others,” said Hendrick Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne, who estimated his surface area of the Chevrolet doing the pushing has shrunk from two feet to six inches. “It’s going to be way easier to wreck with this car, not in a bad way.

“If one car darts in front of you, if you’re pushing in the wrong corner of the car, there is going to be a wreck.”

The teams used the same restrictor plate they will use this weekend at Talladega—a plate with four holes 29/32nds of an inch in diameter. They all had the same grille opening (which has the ducts for cooling) at 1.75 inches-by-24 inches with the grille location not as high as in the 2012 cars.

Kahne said his top speed was 204 mph, while Roush Fenway Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. said he hit 201.

“We asked the teams to go out and tandem draft so we could compare (the racing) against that look at temperatures and things that are concerns of ours,” NASCAR Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said.

“It really appears that is not the only option in a way to race here at Talladega and Daytona.”

Stenhouse’s car had the biggest crowd around it for the final run, where NASCAR had his team add exhaust pipes to come out of the rear of the car instead of the sides. That was a “science project” and NASCAR is interested in seeing the data, NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said.

“That was the most intense time I’ve ever backed out of a garage,” Stenhouse said. “There were people everywhere like you were teeing off at a golf tournament or something.

“I think they just wanted to try something. I am not sure exactly why but it felt like it might have hurt the power a little bit. That was a lot of exhaust added to it. They are going to look at the data and see what they thought.”

“It’s a little bit more edgy out there,” Logano said. “You get (that bumper) round so if you (push and move) too far to the right side, you come back and hook him. That part is dangerous. But besides that, they drove fine. It’s Talladega.”

While not ruling out an additional test, Pemberton said NASCAR has no additional tests scheduled at a restrictor-plate track until the test tentatively planned for Jan. 10-12 at Daytona International Speedway.